NOT A UNION KKK FRATERNAL ORDER OF POLICE

Chicago police union president defends pro-Trump protesters at US Capitol riot

By Liz Nagy

Thursday, January 7, 2021 6:19PM

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Fraternal Order of Police president John Catanzara defended the pro-Trump protests that turned into a riot, storming the Capitol Wednesday.

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Fraternal Order of Police president John Catanzara defended the pro-Trump protest that turned into a riot, with supporters storming the Capitol Wednesday and trashing the sacred halls of democracy.

He said while he was horrified at the chaos, the vast majority of people in attendance were "peaceful protesters."

Catanzara insisted it was "a handful of people" who were the problem, despite video of massive crowds swarming and breaking into the halls of Congress.

"Disgraceful," Catanzara said. "All the way around. A handful of people out of a crowd of 450,000 plus, decided to take the law into their own hands and swarm a building they should have obviously even entered."

At a rally before the chaos, the president himself said he'd march with the mass and encouraged the crowd of tens of thousands to take matters into their own hands.

Catanzara has been a staunch advocate for Trump and his "law and order message." He blamed the president for the riot, but only partially.

"I don't think anybody anticipated the events to unfold as they did and that's where I said shame on the president, shame on his sons, shame on Rudy Giuliani. They did nothing but stoke the emotions of the crowd," he said. "And whether some planted agitators or plain out Trump supporters took advantage of the situation and crossed the line, that's on them."

Video of the violent run on the nation's capital is littered with signs, flags and apparel bearing the president's name but Catanzara appeared to give some support to allegations from the right that the violent mob was Antifa, which there is no evidence to support.

"To think there's not a possibility that Antifa did not infiltrate, even a handful of them in that crowd to make the optics look bad, even worse than they were by committing more egregious acts, if you don't think that's a possibility than shame on you," he said.

The mob ran through the Capitol long enough to occupy the Speaker's office and vandalize. This past summer, Black Lives Matter protesters were run out Lafayette Park in Washington, D.C. with flash bangs and smoke bombs.

"Lafayette Park was different because they were told to leave the park repeatedly and they did not. Yesterday was a spontaneous event," Catanzara said.

Catanzara is calling for the prosecution of yesterday's capitol vandals but said most of the crowd had understandable frustration.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot shot back in a tweet, saying in part, "This wasn't 'frustration.' It was a violent insurrection."

The Chicago chapter of the Council for American and Islamic Relations is also calling on Catanzara to resign over his comments.

 THE FOX NEWS COUP

Trump’s propaganda outlet and others in right-wing media helped make this happen

WRITTEN BY MATT GERTZ

PUBLISHED 01/06/21 MMFA

As I write this, the U.S. Capitol has been breached by a riotous mob of President Donald Trump’s supporters who are bent on preventing the peaceful transition of power to President-elect Joe Biden. The House of Representatives and the Senate, whose members had convened in their separate chambers after some Republicans objected to the counting of Arizona’s electoral votes, are locked down, while Vice President Mike Pence, who was presiding, has left the area. Insurrectionists continue to stream into the building. It’s unclear when or how the legislators will be able to proceed with their constitutional duty.

A coup attempt is underway in the United States of America, which prides itself on being a beacon of democracy.

It was not an accident. It did not just happen. Democracy in this country has enemies.

The American people spoke, and Trump lost the election by a sizable margin. But rather than accept that reality, he claimed that the election had been rigged, stolen away from him by fiendish Democratic operatives in a number of states. These were wild conspiracy theories, the dregs of the internet fever swamps. 

Fox News and others in the Trumpist media could have explained this to their audiences. Instead, they chose to lie. They laid the groundwork in the months leading up to the election for Trump to cry fraud, and once he did, they cheered on his cynical effort to subvert the vote and usher in the end of American democracy.

When protesters descended on Washington, D.C., this morning for rallies the president had supported, they celebrated that too. Then Trump gave a rally speech before the assembled crowd, told them that the election had been stolen and “we’re not going to let it happen,” and the mob listened.

Like the senior Republican official who questioned what “the downside” was for “humoring [Trump] for this little bit of time,” many at Fox likely assumed they could continue to stoke the fury of their viewers without consequences.

But now the bill has come due. They cheered on a coup, now it’s here, and no one can say what will happen next. And no one should ever let Fox forget its role in causing it.

Foreseen on BuzzFlash, Will Trump Ignite His Reichstag Fire on January 6?

Yes.  Steve Jonas on BuzzFlash January 4, 2021
Hitler assumed dictatorial power after the German parliament building, the Reichstag, was partially burned down in 1933. (Jorge Lascar)


By Steven Jonas, MD, MPH

As is now well-known, the “Proud Boys” (who knows just what they are proud of) and assorted other Right-Wing Terrorist groups are planning major demonstrations in Washington, D.C., on and around January 6, 2021. At that time, according to the Constitution (a document with which they and various political figures associated with them, like Trump and various U.S. Trumpublican© Senators and Representatives, seem not to be familiar with) the electoral votes cast for President, which were certified by the 50 respective states back in December, are to be formally counted. (See BuzzFlash’s “Mike Pence Should Not Preside Over Electoral Ballot Count on January 6: He Has an Inextricable Conflict of Interest” about Pence’s flagrantly conflicted role in the “ceremony.”)

As Marisa Lang, a correspondent for The Washington Post, has said: “DC is becoming a protest battleground. In a polarized nation, experts say that’s unlikely to change.” Violence is being threatened. For example, from the Lang article: “Neo-Nazis took to Telegram, an encrypted chat app that allows users to broadcast to a channel of subscribers, to encourage followers to attend, saying they need ‘bootson the ground’ to intimidate lawmakers and push for a nationalist agenda.” And then, whaddaya know, Trump is “thinking about” addressing an assemblage of these group at the time which, under the Constitution and relevant law, Vice President Pence, as President of the Senate, is to begin opening the envelopes containing each state’s certified electoral votes. We can consider at another time the various Constitutional/legal and non-Constitutional challenges of Trumpist Senators and Representatives to the outcome of the election. But the immediate issue here is what the “Proud Boys” et al, egged on by Trump, have been at least thinking about, in terms of some kind of violent protests around the Constitutional certification of the electoral vote.

On January 30, 1933 Adolf Hitler had been appointed Chancellor of Germany by the Weimar Republic President, Paul von Hindenburg. Although his government was very good at such things rounding up his most vocal opponents and putting them in “concentration camps,” and shutting down opposition newspapers, they were not very good at dealing with the nation’s many social and economic problems. And so, in February Hitler conspired to partially burn down the parliament building, the Reichstag, blamed it, and every other problem Germany faced, on the German Communist Party (a member of which was blamed for the fire), and then demanded that in order to fix everything (including of course doing away with any opposition), Hitler needed to have dictatorial powers. To do that, the Weimar Constitution, under which Hitler was still ruling, would have to be changed.

On March 23, 1933, in Berlin the Reichstag (parliament) was called into session to consider a motion for changing the Weimar Constitution to in effect make Hitler Dictator for Life. That required a 2/3’s vote of the Reichstag members. After having had expelled the Communist Party members, Hitler was still not certain that he could get that 2/3’s. And so, when the vote came to the floor, the Nazis surrounded the chamber and the remaining Deputies with armed Sturm Abteilung (SA, “Storm”) troopers in uniform. Guess what? Hitler got his necessary 2/3’s majority. One wonders if Trump and his own Storm Troopers (different from the SA only in that they do not [yet] all wear the same uniform) has in mind something along these lines.

Hopefully, of course, this will not happen (although if it does one wonders just how many of the Trumpist members of Congress will protest against it). Hopefully, between the District Police and the Capitol Police, perhaps aided by the National Guards from Virginia and Maryland (the DC National Guard being under Trump’s control) any violence can be put down quickly, without loss of life, and property damage can be held to a minimum (e.g., they will not attempt to burn down the Capitol building). But be prepared for rioting at some level (and the fascist forces are already telling us that they plan to have some agent provocateur members dress as “antifa” to make it appear that the fascists are battling somebody, not US Constitutional Democracy).

And so, in the end, after all the declaiming by the Congressional Trumpists, with Hawley and Cruz for sure trying to get to the head of the pack for the 2024 Trumpublican© Presidential nomination, after the possible violence by the self-proclaimed Trumpist Right-terrorists, on Jan. 20, at noon ET, Joe Biden will become President of the United States. And where will Trump be?

I have previously speculated that he will leave the country before that time, primarily to avoid all of the litigation he would be faced with after it. Now, I think that he will leave, but on a grand scale. After generating all the very loud noise about “election fraud,” saying that “I was cheated, I have done so much for you, I will never be appreciated as I should be,” he will go to a country which would be very happy to host the “US President in Exile” (that is until they caught up in his grifting in a major way, but that’s another story). Among the candidates for such an “honor” are: Brazil, Hungary, Poland, The Philippines, Belarus (with Putin’s blessing), Paraguay, or perhaps one of the Gulf States.

Far-fetched? Perhaps. But who would ever have thought that a multi-failure businessman with no knowledge of how government works, little education, no inquisitiveness (although much acquisitiveness), an open racist and not-at-all shy about it, and no previous government experience, could become President of the United States?

Steven Jonas, MD, MPH, MS is a Professor Emeritus of Preventive Medicine at StonyBrookMedicine (NY) and author/co-author/editor/co-editor of over 35 books. He is an occasional contributor to BuzzFlash (reborn) (after having been along-time contributor to the Original). In addition, he is a “Trusted Author” for Op-Ed News. a contributor to Reader Supported News/Writing for Godot; a contributor to From The G-Man; a Contributor for American Politics to The Planetary Movement; and a Deputy Editor, Politics, and a “Witness to History,” and an occasional contributor for The Greanville Post; He is also a triathlete (36 seasons, 256 multi-sport races).

He has a distribution list for his columns. If you would like to be added to it, please send him an email at sjtpj@aol.com

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Far-Right Activists on Social Media Telegraphed Violence Weeks in Advance of the Attack on the US Capitol

The siege was consistent with their openly expressed hopes and plans.

by

Alex Newhouse

Protesters gather on the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6, 2021 in Washington, D.C. Pro-Trump protesters entered the U.S. Capitol building after mass demonstrations in the nation's capital during a joint session Congress to ratify President-elect Joe Biden's 306-232 Electoral College win over President Donald Trump. (Photo: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

The attack on the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6 was shocking, but no one following right-wing activity on social media should have been surprised. The attempt by President Donald Trump’s far-right supporters to violently stop Congress from certifying the Electoral College vote and formalizing Joe Biden’s election victory was consistent with their openly expressed hopes and plans.

As a researcher of far-right extremism, I monitor right-wing social media communities. For weeks in advance, I watched as groups across the right-wing spectrum declared their intentions. On Facebook, Twitter, Parler and other platforms, influencers, politicians, activists and ordinary people focused on Jan. 6 as their final opportunity to prevent what they claimed was corruption on a monumental scale.

To most of these activists, there was no possible resolution other than Trump emerging victorious. In the open, they discussed how they were preparing to force Congress and Vice President Mike Pence to nullify the election results and declare Trump the victor.

The buildup

Since the election in November, Trump and his allies had spread baseless conspiracy theories alleging that Democrats, some Republicans and the “deep state” had committed widespread voter fraud to elect Biden. In this myth, Trump had won the election in a landslide, and only corrupt politicians stood in the way of his victory. These conspiracy theories sparked fury in all corners of the right-wing ecosystem, and the certification process for the Electoral College votes became a symbol of both corruption and opportunity.

Conservative groups began organizing for a large-scale protest in Washington, D.C., following a tweet from President Trump posted on Dec. 18. “Big protest in D.C. on Jan. 6. Be there, will be wild!” he wrote. His instructions were taken seriously by mainstream supporters and far-right extremists alike.

Stymied repeatedly in their efforts to overturn the election, Trump supporters and right-wing extremists searched for another avenue to reverse election results. For Trump and his supporters, Jan. 6 became a desperate, last-ditch effort. As social media posts showed, this desperation led them to express the righteousness of using violence to force Congress to act in their favor.

Out in the open

In the days preceding the events of Jan. 6, right-wing social media communities frequently discussed preparations, travel plans and hopes for the demonstrations. Across Twitter and Facebook, people began speaking of Jan. 6 in near-mystical terms. By surveying social media data from mid-December to Jan. 5, I discovered thousands of posts referring to the planned protests as if they were a coming revolution.

In some circles, the event became synonymous with a final battle – the moment when all of the supposed crimes of Democrats would be laid bare, and when ordinary Americans would take back the government. “On January 6, we find out whether we still have a constitutional republic,” one user wrote on Twitter on New Year’s Eve. “If not, the revolution begins. I’d rather fight and die than live in a socialist society. Pretty sure 80 million Americans feel the same way.”

Specific references to storming the Capitol also appeared, although infrequently. As one Twitter user put it, “Roberts is the Corrupt-in-chief. January 6. We need to storm Congress and @SCOTUS and arrest Roberts, McConnell, Pelosi, Schumer, McCarthy just to begin the swamp’s draining! #RobertsCorruptInChief.”

More frequently, QAnon adherents zeroed in on Jan. 6 as the beginning of a chain of events that would lead to apocalyptic cleansing they refer to as “The Storm.” Some even believed that The Storm would arrive during the demonstration itself, and that Trump would, far beyond any reasonable expectation, arrest members of the Democratic and global elite for treason while also winning the election.

Although posts on Facebook and Twitter hinted that more than just protests were possible, nowhere was the coming violence as obvious as on Parler. The site, which has attracted millions of new conservative users in the past year, has positioned itself as a bastion for right-wing conspiracy theories and organizing efforts. From my research, hundreds of Parler users expressed their sincere belief, and even desire, that the demonstrations would spark a physical battle, revolution or civil war.

“We are ready to fight back and we want blood,” a Parler post from Dec. 28 declared. “The president need to do some thing if Jan. 6 is the day then we are ready.” Another user stated, “January 6 will either be our saving grace or we will have another civil war that should end very quickly!! Either way Trump will be our POTUS!! Anything less is unacceptable!!”

Using tools that allow me to monitor large-scale social media data, I found evidence that right-wing activists had been explicit and open with their intentions for the Jan. 6 demonstrations since at least mid-December. I have no doubt that the demonstration was specifically designed to force Congress to overturn the election. Although the act of storming the Capitol may not have been planned, the demonstrators had prepared for weeks to use at least the threat of physical violence to intimidate Congress and Pence during the certification process.

[Get our best science, health and technology stories. Sign up for The Conversation’s science newsletter.]

A pattern of planning and calls for violence

The profound transparency with which right-wing activists planned their demonstrations indicates both that extreme, anti-democratic thought has become normalized on Parler, and that Twitter and Facebook still struggle to moderate open calls to violence. This is not the first time. Right-wing activists have made a habit of organizing in the open and galvanizing supporters to express their desire for violent confrontation.

Far-right activists have also engaged in online fundraising, including while livestreaming the attack on the Capitol building.

Since the attack, I’ve observed users on Parler, Facebook and Twitter simultaneously celebrating the occupiers and spreading unfounded, dangerous conspiracy theories that the instigators of the violence were actually antifascists and leftists. On Parler, many users have turned on Pence, and calls for the execution of politicians have increased.

Law enforcement and intelligence services should learn from what happened and the apparent lack of preparedness on the part of Capitol police, because this is likely to happen again. It’s impossible to know what will happen next. However, the communities that caused the events of Jan. 6 organized for it openly on social media – and they show every intention of acting again.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Alex Newhouse is the Research Lead at the Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism, at Middlebury Institute of International Studies, where he focuses on right-wing extremism, religious fundamentalism, online extremism and terrorism, and terrorist propaganda.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Can Justice Finally Overtake Trump, 

Its Most Defiant Fugitive?

by

Ralph Nader

President Donald Trump speaks to reporters during a Cabinet meeting

 at the White House on October 21, 2019 in Washington, D.C.

 (Photo: Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Despite the many crimes Donald Trump regularly committed over four years, it took his blatant incitement of the mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, to put him on the road to prison. (See: Letter to vice President Mike Pence Re: Invocation of Amendment 25). What transpired on Wednesday in the shadows of the Washington Monument was a pure violent street crime that resulted in five fatalities, property smashed and damaged, and many assaults by hundreds of rioters who broke into or were allowed into the Capitol.

The current prosecutor is Acting United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, Michael R. Sherwin. USA TODAY reported that Mr. Sherwin said: “‘We’re looking at all actors here and anyone that had a role and, if the evidence fits the elements of the crime, they’re going to be charged,’ Sherwin said these words after he was asked by a reporter if investigators are looking at the role the president played.”

From Day One in 2017, several people foresaw the signs of an emerging sociopath, using violent rhetoric to encourage illegal behavior. It wasn’t only professional psychologists who declared Trump to be severely unstable. Each day he created and disseminated dangerous fantasies. This egomaniacal wannabee monarch could not stop lying in a dangerous manner, making false accusations or delusionally bragging.

Reporters, commentators, litigants, and elected representatives who were documenting Trump’s trail of political and public insanity were overwhelmed by his doubling down on his flailing and wrongdoing in plain sight. But they mostly declined to draw the enforcement conclusions arising from their convictions, further enabling Trump’s use of the power of the bully pulpit to intimidate or threaten his critics.

Remember, Trump, said, “I have an Article II, where I have the right to do whatever I want as president.” He recklessly kept doing just that. The Republicans supported him and covered for him, while the Democrats huffed and puffed in place. The Democrats refused to file eleven well-documented articles of impeachment and instead only went with the Ukraine matter. (See: December 18, 2019, Congressional Record, H-12197)

Meanwhile, in dozens of ways, Trump emboldened the most extreme of his supporters. Recall his outcry “liberate Wisconsin.” Trump’s support for the armed invasion of the Michigan state capitol with impunity, and his many signals, and inactions showed the white supremacists in the streets that the President and William Barr’s Justice Department would overlook hateful racist mischief and mayhem. He even encouraged one of these groups by repeating their militant mantra verbatim.

Published warnings about Trump’s interest in insurrection were largely unheeded by the mass media and even by the independent progressive media. They were too satisfied with reporting on his outrageous behavior and tweets, and too pleased with how easy a subject Trump was for derision. We and others would invoke specific criminal statutes he violated frequently, such as the Hatch Act (using federal property and personnel for political campaign objectives) or the Anti-Deficiency Acts (spending much money strictly not appropriated by Congress) and other grave flouting of statutory and regulatory, mandates, scores of congressional subpoenas and major constitutional provisions. The news media did not regard Trump’s deep lawlessness as worthy of much reporting or editorializing. The excuse was “Trump is just being Trump.” Both the media and members of Congress, without paying attention to legal penalties, allowed Trump to keep pushing the envelope on lawbreaking until his invasion of the very Congress that let him get away with so much. It took lawmakers scrambling for their lives through Congressional tunnels to wake them up beyond their rhetoric or perfidy. There are severe consequences for ignoring the law’s non-enforcement and when the media and elected officials become too jaded to challenge a president who doesn’t respect the rule of law or constitutional restraints.

This assault may not be Trump’s last act before January 20th. For sure he will increase the presidential pardons for his friends, family, and quite possibly the rioters and himself. Nobody knows what this “Mad Dog” Trump will try to do on his way out. However, it is reassuring that neither the courts nor the military have met his expectations of supporting and shielding him from his adversaries. These two institutions affirmatively refused to sanction dictatorial rule.

The mounting calls for Trump’s resignation, or prosecution, or removal by impeachment conviction or the exercise of the 25th Amendment are coming from all sides – Democrats, Republicans, bi-partisan declarations of retired military and civilian officials from past Administrations, and even business groups such as the National Association of Manufacturers. Their immediate urging would be to stop further mayhem and upheavals by a cornered, rampaging commander-in-chief who knows that, in one of his favorite phrases, “this is our last chance.”

Maybe merely advancing these acts of enforcement and evictions, rooted in our constitution and law, will be a deterrence and persuade Trump to quietly go right away to Mar-a-Largo, as suggested today on NPR by Jeh Johnson, former Secretary of Homeland Security.

That kind of finale has not been his MO, whether as a failed gambling czar, choosing corporate bankruptcy as an exit strategy, or as a president who doesn’t show remorse, admit mistakes, or that he ever “did anything wrong.”

If there is anything Trump dislikes more than being a loser (the election), it is being a two-time loser. Perhaps he will back down, play the victim again, and with the help of a stable of defense attorneys, hope that he can wear a pin-striped suit instead of an orange jumpsuit while wistfully watching Fox News behind bars.

(See our new book, Wrecking America: How Trump’s Lawbreaking and Lies Betray All)

Ralph Nader is a consumer advocate and the author of "The Seventeen Solutions: Bold Ideas for Our American Future" (2012). His new book is, "Wrecking America: How Trump’s Lies and Lawbreaking Betray All" (2020, co-authored with Mark Green).

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'History Will Not Look Kindly on Us'

If Trump Not Impeached, 

Says Rep. Ilhan Omar

The Minnesota Democrat said she will formally introduce two articles of impeachment Monday.

by

Andrea Germanos, staff writer

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) removes her mask to speak during a press conference

 on August 5, 2020 in St. Paul, Minnesota. (Photo: Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)

Rep. Ilhan Omar said Sunday that she plans on introducing two articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump on Monday and warned that history would "not look kindly" upon lawmakers if they fail to ensure Trump faces consequences for his role in inciting the extremist mob that attacked the U.S. Capitol last week.

Omar (D-Minn.), a frequent target of Trump's racist rhetoric, released the articles of impeachment Thursday. One article targets Trump's attempt to overturn the results of the November election, which he decisively lost to President-elect Joe Biden, and the second article addresses Trump's abuse of "the powers of the presidency to incite violence and orchestrate an attempted coup against our country"—a reference to the Wednesday siege.

Asked by host Esme Murphy of Minneapolis' "This Morning" on WCCO about any certainty of Democratic leadership scheduling the start of impeachment proceedings, Omar said, "That is our hope."

"Right now we are still in the process of pushing our colleagues to... realize that the actions are deserving of consequences, that if we do not take a decisive, expedient decision on how to deal with these actions, we risk further damage to our democracy, to our republic."

"We are constitutionally mandated to protect and preserve our democracy and our republic," she said, "and this man is clearly exhibiting dangers to it."

As to whether it was worth it to pursue impeachment given that the Republican-controlled Senate is not set to resume its regular session until January 19, the day before President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration, Omar said that "there is a greater risk not having consequences for this president and his actions and those in the House and in the Senate that have enabled this insurrection and attempted coup to take place."

"If we do not take action," she continued, "then we are sending a message to the country and to the world that ours is one where democracy can come under siege, our nation's Capitol can be threatened, and we look the other way."

"If we do not do that, then history will not look kindly on us," said Omar.

"There [have] to be actions that are taken in order to avoid this from happening again," Omar added, issuing the same message fellow "squad" member Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) also gave Sunday morning.

Other lawmakers have called for invoking the 25th Amendment of the Constitution to remove Trump, an option Vice President Mike Pence has reportedly not fully ruled out.

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Failure to Hold Trump Accountable for Capitol Siege Means 'It Will Happen Again,' Says Rep. Ocasio-Cortez

"If another head of state came in and ordered an attack on the United States Congress, would we say that that should not be prosecuted?" the New York Democrat said Sunday.

by

Andrea Germanos, staff writer

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) is seen during a hearing before the House Oversight and Reform Committee on August 24, 2020 on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Tom Williams-Pool/Getty Images)

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Sunday stressed a need for President Donald Trump's removal from office, saying that failing to hold him accountable for Wednesday's violent attack on the Capitol could ensure "it will happen again."

Speaking with George Stephanopoulos on ABC's "This Week," the New York Democrat said that ensuring Trump's ouster was a "top priority" and that House leadership must schedule impeachment.

The president poses "a clear and present danger not just to the United States Congress but frankly to the country," said Ocasio-Cortez. In addition to removing Trump from the Oval Office, lawmakers must ensure he can neither run for office again nor issue a self-pardon, she said.

Asked her response to a letter sent Saturday to President-elect Joe Biden from a group of seven House Republicans urging him help stop impeachment, calling it "as unnecessary as it is inflammatory," Ocasio-Cortez was clear she views the situation quite differently.

"What happened on Wednesday was insurrection against the United States," she said. Referencing Republicans' framing of the letter as being "in the spirit of healing," Ocasio-Cortez said that "the process of healing... requires accountability."

"So if we allow insurrection against the United States with impunity, with no accountability, we are inviting it to happen again," she said. Ocasio-Cortez emphasized that lives were at risk during the armed siege, telling Stephanopoulos, "We came close to half of the House nearly dying on Wednesday."

"If another head of state came in and ordered an attack on the United States Congress, would we say that that should not be prosecuted? Would we say there should be absolutely no response to that? No," she said.

"It is an act of insurrection. It's an act of hostility," she continued. "And we must have accountability, because without it it will happen again."

Watch the full interview below:

The interview came after a day after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told her Democratic colleagues that it was "absolutely essential that those who perpetrated the assault on our democracy be held accountable. There must be a recognition that this desecration was instigated by the president."

The dear colleague letter, released late Saturday, does not specifically mention impeachment, but references "parliamentary and constitutional options available to us" she's discussed with lawyers. "I urge you to be prepared to return to Washington this week," Pelosi added.

Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) said Sunday that an impeachment resolution he drafted along with Reps. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) and Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) has 195 co-sponsors. It will be introduced in the House Monday at a pro-forma session, he said.

With a mere 11 days left in his term, the prospect of Trump's removal through impeachment is dim, as Politico noted Saturday. "The Senate likely wouldn't even begin Trump's impeachment trial until after Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20," the outlet reported. "Even then, it's not clear if any Senate Republicans would join with Democrats to convict Trump."